The digital age has not removed the need for regular, in person contact. Professionals, academics and others routinely travel to conferences, meet at special events such as business presentations or receptions, and speak to each other in public and private settings such as restaurants, coffee shops, ball games, parks, on the street, etc.
When people meet face to face, it is common to network and exchange information concerning their respective abilities, qualifications, experience, education, position, financial solvency, etc. However, when this information is simply exchanged verbally, there is no way for one party to know whether the other is being wholly truthful. Even where a party does not intended to be dishonest, people often exaggerate or are overly confident in their own abilities.
Certain conventional physical credentials such as government or corporate issued ids can be used to provide third party verification of some attributes. Unfortunately, information on such physical media is pre-printed, and cannot be redacted or selectively shared based on context. For example, when showing an id it is not possible to disclose only the employer, but not other information printed on the card, such as email address or phone number. In practice, people likely wish to share different information with different parties under different circumstances. Furthermore, the information printed on an id likely omits many attributes the owner might want to disclose, such as degrees earned or work history. People are unlikely to carry more detailed credentials such as transcripts or bank statements, which in any case present the same difficulties concerning selective sharing of content. Furthermore, physical credentials are typically not difficult to alter or forge.
It would be desirable to address these issues.